The full and final text of the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement was officially released today, giving the public and Congress their first look at the long-gestating and controversial trade deal. And it’s clear from the chapters on intellectual property and investment that content creators and copyright owners got more or less everything they were seeking from the deal.

The treaty, which Congress will now have 90 days to vote up or down but cannot change, would require countries to ban the circumvention of technical protection measures (i.e. DRM) and, like the the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the U.S., to sever liability for circumvention from any actual infringement of copyright. In other words, circumvention is verboten whether or not it results in an infringement under a participating country’s national copyright law.

The text does allow countries to pass exceptions to the ban on circumvention for non-infringing uses, as the DMCA permits through a triennial rulemaking by the Library of Congress, but it does not make those exceptions mandatory. The text also avoids any reference to a U.S.-style fair use principal while extending the term of copyright in all TPP countries to the U.S. standard of the life of the author plus 70 years. Read More »

Events

Judges on a federal appeals court on Thursday grilled the Department of Justice (DOJ) over its challenge to a lower court decision blessing the AT&T-Time Warner merger. Source: Judges grill DOJ over challenge to AT&T-Time Warner merger

Netflix and Amazon view Europe as a key battleground, but a new local quota and pushback from traditional broadcasters present challenges. Source: Netflix, Amazon Face New Parameters and Challenges in Europe

A media landscape prone to tectonic shifts is likely to feel a series of aftershocks once Democrats take control of the House. Source: Media mega-mergers under threat with Democrats controlling the House

MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe opens up about ticketing service’s tumultuous year and its plans to battle back from the brink. Source: MoviePass Announces New Pricing While Promising to Win Back Customers’ Trust

Comcast Xfinity TV customers will be able to sync their accounts with Movies Anywhere in order to access their movie purchases from the Xfinity Digital Store alongside those from other digital retailers. Source: Digital movie collection app Movies Anywhere adds its first pay TV partner, Comcast

Four months after Comcast announced it was integrating Amazon Prime Video, the app is finally rolling out to Comcast’s Xfinity platform nationwide. Source: Amazon Prime Video is finally coming to Comcast Xfinity

The main issue of live streaming is that it potentially damages the broadcasters’ investment whereby the benefits of exclusive rights owed to them fail to tally with the expected output. Source: Digital Streaming: Snuffing The Life Out Of Live Sports On TV